Which line for me?

[cw2go]

Please do not take offense, I mean this in the nicest possible way. I am reading over several New England cruise reviews and need your input.

 

We are early 40's and have sailed "X" RCCL and Carnival, that being said RCCL is thus far the best fit. We are active and low maintenance. Now for my touchy question. which cruise line to New England will have the youngest demographics? Some recent reviews are causing me to be concerned we will feel like fish out of water. I do not have a problem with elderly and have learned much from their wisdom but at the same time do not want to feel inundated with people we have little in common with. Just looking to spend a cruise with some people in our stage in life.

 

At this point we are leaning towards Princess "CB" out of NY mid Sept or early Oct. I am undecided if I want warmer weather or foliage colors??? :confused:

 

 

Thank you in advance,

Patty

[138east]

I live in New England and have always been mystified by folks who try to sail during the fall foliage season. The timing of the color changes varies year to year. The weather is not as nice - much cooler, more storms, and fog. Also the best foliage areas are not necessarily in the coastal ports. IMO the best and warmest weather is July to mid August. This time frame would give you a broader choice of cruise lines - RCL sails NE all summer.

[cw2go]

I live in New England and have always been mystified by folks who try to sail during the fall foliage season. The timing of the color changes varies year to year. The weather is not as nice - much cooler, more storms, and fog. Also the best foliage areas are not necessarily in the coastal ports. IMO the best and warmest weather is July to mid August. This time frame would give you a broader choice of cruise lines - RCL sails NE all summer.

 

Your spot on with my thinking as well. Seems when I look at pic's NE looks awesome in the late summer. We have also considered Aug. In you opinion would that also bring in a younger cruise cliantel. I am sure the fall foliage is breathtaking but is a big gamble as to which week will be the one to cruise.

 

Thank you,

Patty

[138east]

There will be more families sailing NE in the summer. Even if you don't have kids, the parents of those kids will be in your age range. RCL has an excellent children's program - they have their own area of the ship and the club programs keep them busy outside the main areas of the ship. I've sailed the Explorer 3 times in February and there has been a nice mix of ages. The only times folks have commented on the ship having too many children has been on the February and November school vacation weeks plus Christmas.

[CMM]

We sailed this Sept on RCI Explorer of the Seas, Previously on Princess's Caribbean Princess, and about 6 years ago on Carnival Victory all Canada/New England Itinerary. We are in our early 40's and felt young on all three cruises.

 

I think it has a whole lot to do with the itinerary itself and the time of year (all three in Sept) Warm beach cruises attract a younger more mobile crowd. September is not a time families tend to travel as kids have just started back to school. With over 3,000 people on our last cruise there were only 16 kids and many were extended family of the onboard entertainment staff.

 

Obviously this isn't a big issue for us as we have chosen to do this itinerary and time of the year 3 times! We enjoyed all three trips.

 

As for which line that is a hard one. Carnival had the most scooters in my memory. RCI might have been slightly younger, but not in a way that would stick out. I think we were just a few years older by the RCI cruise that the crowde was looking younger to us! Princess cruisers seemed a bit more younger at heart if not older.

 

My suggestion is to not cruise Sept if this is a concern. We choose it as we like the low low rates and since we were going without our kids we didn't want to be on a ship full of other peoples kids. That would make me feel guilty and miss mine too much. That is just me. With your situation, I think you would find the demographics more young with the family groups in the summer time.

 

Also on all three of our cruises in Sept there were NO or very little fall colors. If you were leaning towards a Sept cruise for this reason alone you might be disappointed.

 

Since you seem to prefer RCI, if they have one that appeals to you I would go for it. Like I said we had a great time on all three lines.

[cw2go]

Thank you CMM,

 

We are actually leaning towards September as well for a few of the reasons you express. We would like nicer weather while touring in NE. And also the price seems to be a better value.

 

At this time after reading reviews it seems to be very much as it was for us in Ak and after all my research we indeed picked based on itenerary. I am also leaning towards Princess CB since we would like one less sea day and Bar Harbor is a must have.

 

Thank you for you help we too will not have children with us.

So all in all being young has never been a bad thing and we will now know what to expect.

 

Patty

[nctraveler54]

Just got back 09/27, NY to Quebec on the Crown. We are in our 50's and were one of the youngest - which we enjoyed. Did not see many small children, could count them all on two hands. Loved the cruise! But with 8 ports in 10 days, it was busy; only 1 day at sea. If possible, include Charlottetown - tops on our list. Did not see much color, need to wait until October for that.

 

Have a great trip!

[debrack]

We just completed a NE cruise with Princess. Itinerary was great. Shows were fabulous. weather...Not so good, no color and too cold to enjoy our lovely balcony. Quebec City had best fall foilage in late September, the rest of the cruise to NY was green.

Now for demographics.....We are in our fifties, and were the babies on the cruise. It was great to be considered so young for a change.:)

IMO, our 116,000gross ton ship was much too big for this particular itineray....Took 2 hours plus to tender off the ship in some of the ports. 3500 people could not fit in the 800 seat theater for the shows, so we wasted countless hours just "waiting". The seats were occupied 45 minutes ahead of show time.

 

 

Looking back, I learned that 1. I will never consider another cruise to see fall color, and 2. I would travel on a smaller ship in hopes of having better quality food and shorter wait times to see the ports and shows.

 

If you happen to go with an older group, get traditional seating or you may go hungry. Having signed up for the early dining we were spared a long wait for dinner each night. I figured I spent 16 hours (2 vacation days worth) of my precious time off form work just waiting in lines.

We also ran into hurricane remanants this time of year which caused for some rocky seas and a cancelled port of call.

 

I would also look for a cruise that spends more time in Boston. 6 hours in a busy port like Boston just was not enough.

[CMM]

Thank you CMM,

 

We are actually leaning towards September as well for a few of the reasons you express. We would like nicer weather while touring in NE. And also the price seems to be a better value.

 

At this time after reading reviews it seems to be very much as it was for us in Ak and after all my research we indeed picked based on itenerary. I am also leaning towards Princess CB since we would like one less sea day and Bar Harbor is a must have.

 

Thank you for you help we too will not have children with us.

So all in all being young has never been a bad thing and we will now know what to expect.

 

Patty

 

Glad to be of help. Here is my review of our CB cruise, but keep in mind that one was in 2008 and it has gone through dry dock since then.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=849213&highlight=

 

If you do go with the CB may I suggest thinking about eating later. It took us a few days to realize most of the overcrowding was eliminated that way. Early shows etc you would need to get there 45 minutes early, but not for the later shows. We learned to relax by eating later and seeing the later shows. Worked great.

 

Another suggestions would be the Historic Pub Tour in Halifax. Overpriced and kind of silly, but a great time. We wished it had been our first port as everyone on that tour was relaxed and fun loving. It was a nice upbeat group to spend the afternoon with.

[south seas sue]

Debrack, just want to suggest either Silversea or Regent for a cruise in New England/Maritimes. We are taking the Regent Navigator next year, which leaves NY on 10-3 and cruises up to the St. Lawrence seaway and ends in Montreal on 10-13. Really hoping for fall color! I know you can't count on great color everywhere, but it seems to me that between Montreal and NY during those dates we should find some good color. The Navigator only holds 500 pax, and the Silversea Whisper is 382. No lines, great food, all inclusive of tips and liquor, and Navigator even includes all shore excursions. You might consider the smaller ships for such an itinerary. We are in SoCal, so of course this will be a real treat for us.

[Coral]

We just completed a NE cruise with Princess. Itinerary was great. Shows were fabulous. weather...Not so good, no color and too cold to enjoy our lovely balcony. Quebec City had best fall foilage in late September, the rest of the cruise to NY was green.

Now for demographics.....We are in our fifties, and were the babies on the cruise. It was great to be considered so young for a change.:)

IMO, our 116,000gross ton ship was much too big for this particular itineray....Took 2 hours plus to tender off the ship in some of the ports. 3500 people could not fit in the 800 seat theater for the shows, so we wasted countless hours just "waiting". The seats were occupied 45 minutes ahead of show time.

 

 

Looking back, I learned that 1. I will never consider another cruise to see fall color, and 2. I would travel on a smaller ship in hopes of having better quality food and shorter wait times to see the ports and shows.

 

If you happen to go with an older group, get traditional seating or you may go hungry. Having signed up for the early dining we were spared a long wait for dinner each night. I figured I spent 16 hours (2 vacation days worth) of my precious time off form work just waiting in lines.

We also ran into hurricane remanants this time of year which caused for some rocky seas and a cancelled port of call.

 

I would also look for a cruise that spends more time in Boston. 6 hours in a busy port like Boston just was not enough.

 

I tend to agree with you. I found the Crown very crowded, too crowded for this itinerary. I did a similar itinerary on the Golden a few years ago and had no problems.

 

I missed the vast majority of foliage both times. I left Oct 15th one year and we were early. I left Oct 23rd last year and we had snow in Quebec. We did hit beautiful color in Boston but that was it.

 

I also felt like I spent my entire vacation "waiting". We were late for dinner often, we missed shows as we couldn't get there early enough. Ironically we did not have tender problems.

 

I was in my 30's on both trips and while I knew I was younger then everyone else, it didn't phase me.

[bigtoeswim'n]

I know this post is way late, but I'm posting in hopes of helping someone.

 

I so agree with 138east. Dh and I sailed RCL Oct 2010 to NE. We are in our late 50s and were BY FAR the kids on board. First time experience for us. It was a Crown&Anchor sailing.

 

We didn't see much leave colors, the weather was very much cold/rainy, the seas were rough on the last night. We also wore ourselves out with that intensive POC. We picked Oct due to DH's work schedule, and $$$ as Oct was the next to cheapest time to go. Would have HATE to have been on the last sailing due to the cold weather. But that is just me/us.

 

We had a fantastic time, though. Glad we sailed RCL for the solarium. We also enjoy having a couch in our room and the No Smoking in cabin policy. This makes RCL a match for us for 7-day or longer cruises and don't mind paying "more" for it.

 

I met several nice senior citizens on the trip, sweet souls and well traveled. It was just shocking to be in the "younger" demographic at my age. DH agreed and he is 58yo.